It was another lively meeting last Thursday, with a wide range of topics discussed.

After introductions, Eric took us through a 1967 Beaver Kit houses brochure. The brochure loudly proclaimed the use of Zonolite insulation which, today, is the cause of much asbestos distress for those seeking to renovate their older houses;

We discussed the maintenance contract required for the GHG website. We agreed a further two years with GoDaddy hosting, and we authorized a cheque to repay Penny for the expense. In two years we will review the hosting situation;

We reviewed the plans for Car Free Day in July, and made an early call for volunteers to man the booth;

Neville presented an excellent piece of research based on a 1908 panoramic image of Grandview. In the image, it is possible to see the most part of Grandview west of the Drive down to False Creek. Neville has spent considerable time identifying the houses, and has found water permits for many. It was a very valuable presentation;

Neville also presented some research on BC Mills houses including a couple of interesting examples that were moved to Odlum Street in the 1940s;

For the trifecta, Neville continued his discussion from last month regarding 1829 Parker. He suggests that the architect was Watson who also designed Wilga.

Penny discussed the repairs we are prepared to make to the Shelley’s sign which is now showing serious signs of exposure damage. She and Michael presented a plan for restoration to Via Tevere which they accepted. The work will take place once the weather turns for the better;

Maria presented some suggestions for the Centenary Signs project this year. She has identified a dozen or more houses in areas we have rarely touched in earlier years. It was agreed that a list will be prepared for a walking tour to make final selections;

Eric presented a number of upcoming events including the Heritage Garden Tour, the Grandview Garden Club garden tour, various Heritage Vancouver Foundation events, the Vancouver Labour History tours, and Christine Allen’s lecture for VHS next Thursday;

We were joined for much of the evening by James Evans who gave us an update on the Brookhouse development. We also discussed the possibilities for an HRA at the St. Francis convent property.

Thanks to all the owners who are hosting our Centenary signs for our 5th year. As in a few previous years, we have concentrated the signs in one area – on a couple of blocks just east of The Drive on 2nd and 3rd Avenues. Easy to visit on your next visit to Continental Coffee!

Here is our map for the set of houses, at least 100 years old, we have chosen this year. There is a large cluster of them on Ferndale Street, reflecting the legacy of builder George Tyson more than a century ago.

This is the fourth year of our project to celebrate Grandview’s Edwardian-era heritage buildings. Links to the other three years are on the navigation bar at the top of this page.

We had another exciting and stimulating meeting of the Grandview Heritage Group last night, with about 20 folks in attendance. The topics we discussed were as wide-ranging as ever.

Ann presented information about a film screening and an art show, both of which will be of interest to Vancouver urbanists. At the Grunt Art Gallery right now, until May 16, is an exhibition of photographic work by Henri Robidaux called “Eraser Street”, a take-off on Fraser Street. Also, on Friday 24th April, Julia Kwan’s documentary exploring the changes in Chinatown and called “Everything Will Be” is being shown at the Hasting Community Centre.

Eric presented the latest in his series of monthly “Happening In the ‘Hood” guides. We looked at a number of older buildings that have been sold recently. There was a discussion about the City’s long term plans for the north side of E.1st by Clark Drive where they have owned the block for many years now. This led to an interesting side-bar on the effect moving St Paul’s Hospital to the East End may have on local development and traffic patterns. The future of the Bosa Grocery building on Victoria was discussed, as was the development right opposite that site. Eric also pointed out the deterioration in the Grandview Smoke Shop “Star Weekly” sign on Commercial. Perhaps GHG could assist in the restoration.

Eric also reported on his visit to a workshop by Nickel Brothers on how to move a heritage house. The average cost to move a house off-lot is about $35,000, and trolley lines are the biggest obstacle.

Our 429 Geog UBC student Kevin Shackles gave us his excellent prresentation on the history (and possible future) of the corner grocery stores in residential neighbourhoods, featuring Grandview. He covered the history of small retail merchandising and then examinded the histories of several local stores. He noted the almost universal change to Chinese owners since the War. In addition to his presentation, Kevin has produced a 20+ page XLS spreadsheet covering the entire range of stores in residential Grandview; a fabulous resource. He also outlined a number of future research ideas for the future. It was an excellent exercise working with Kevin this year, and I know we all wish his the very best in his continuing education and future career.

Jak presented the idea (suggested by many others) that thereshould be Grandview Museum/Archives component in the Britannia Renewal planning that is currently ongoing. Jak will draft a letter giving GHG’s support to the idea.

We briefly discussed the 2015 Century Signs campaign, and whether or not to participate in Car Free Day this year. These two events will be discussed in detail at the May meeting.

We also broefly discussed the current state of the Grandview Community Plan Citizens’ Assembly, which is now getting close to formally endorsing their recommendations. Some cynicism of the process was still expressed. The next, possibly final, Public Roundtable event is on 5th May.

About 20 people showed up at the boardroom at Britannia Community Centre for the monthly GHG meeting.

• the launch party for the 2014 Centenary Signs, with cake and refreshments, will be at 11 am Saturday June 28th at Mosaic Park at the corner of Charles and McLean in the heart of the “west of The Drive” area we’ve highlighted with this year’s set of houses. There will be an email reminder to everyone and we hope that the occupants of the houses who have agreed to host the signs this year can come along.

• Michael described the recent policy changes the city has instituted as part of its Heritage Action Plan: a one-year moratorium on demolitions of pre-1940 houses in First Shaughnessy; a new, interim checklist to determine pre-1940 “character houses” that the city is using while it formalizes an inventory of them; suggestions by city staff for carrots and sticks that would encourage house owners to retain character houses rather than demolish them; and, the implications of the city’s deconstruction and recycling policies that will force demolishers of character houses to divert 90% of the material from the landfill into salvage and re-use. There was a lot of discussion and questions. The policies, although city-wide, are specifically targeted to try to reduce the numbers of demolitions on the big lots of west-side neighbourhoods like Point Grey and Kerrisdale, where there is a considerable business opportunity (i.e. the ability to construct a much larger house) compared with that available on the standard 33 x 120 foot lots of Grandview and other east-side communities; the implications for communities like Grandview will, hopefully, be an increased awareness of the value of the smaller 1920s-1930s houses and more flexible city regulations to encourage their retention.

• There was a brief report on the plan, in abeyance for several months, to create permanent plaques for Grandview heritage houses and offer them to the 74 owners/occupants of the Centenary houses from 2012, 2013 and this year. More effort will go into finalizing research on the houses for the wiki and sourcing a plaque that will be durable (more so, at least, than the one installed at the Shelly’s sign at Victoria and William, which has faded badly after a year).

• Penny showed slides and offered hilarious commentary on her recent trip to Kansas’s depopulated towns of fine old buildings standing vacant under The Big Sky. And Eric, self-described “Amateur House Mechanic,” gave a brief presentation on the stone walls and foundations of vintage Grandview, including demonstrating how to split granite blocks with hand tools, part of his fascinating series of talks on the inner workings of early Vancouver houses.

The next meeting will be at 7 pm on Thursday, July 17th (the third Thursday of the month, right?) in the boardroom at Britannia Community Centre.

For the third year in a row, we have celebrated two-dozen Grandview houses that are at least 100 years old.

This year’s set focuses on groups of historic houses and includes, for the first time, a number of houses west of Commercial Drive – a sometimes overlooked historic area that has been infilled with quite a number of apartment buildings. It also features an apartment building for the first time: the one at Salsbury and Parker, built in 1911 when about 52% of Vancouverites were tenants – a proportion, incidentally, that is the same today.

We will be celebrating in our usual way this set of houses on the morning of Saturday, June 28th: mark your calendars and check back here to confirm time and location.

There was a heavy rainstorm and a wintry wind last night, but still the came out for the latest of our regular monthly meetings. As always, the meeting was full of erudite and fun stuff: We discussed:

The student program, working with UBG Geog. It didn’t work very well for us this year. In fact, it is reasonable to say that we got nothing out of it at all — not even a look at the final paper so far. The student met with us once and then declined to meet with us again. It should be no surprise then that Michael, who attended the class project presentations, said her paper veered off track from what we had hoped. It was agreed that we review the situation again next year if the offer comes up.

On a more positive student note, Jak mentioned that SFU’s John Ngyuen‘s piece on Commercial Drive and the Community Plan should be available late this week. In the meanwhile, his class project on youth estrangement from politics is now available.

We then discussed the fact that Commercial Drive as a whole was put on Heritage Vancouver’s Top 10 Endangered List this year. Several of us disagree that the development pressures that may be leaning on the Drive today are anything to do with heritage. The debate drifted into the current situation in Shaughnessy One and Dunbar.

It was noted that the owners of several heritage properties on the north side of the 1800-block Venables have received letters from a developer seeking to assemble lots there.

Michael then took us through the situation with our plaque on the Shelly’s Wall. It is deteriorating quite quickly, fading.

This led us to the 2014 Centenary Celebration House Signs project. We have 39 houses on the shortlist and 24 signs. We will launch again in June with a cake-in-the-park party.

Penny and Bruce will be talking to the Mount Pleasant Heritage Group about setting up a centenary signs project of their own.

Which brought us to the main event of the night. Eric’s latest episode of this Heritage Mechanicals and Materials. This one was on glass. He entertainingly took us through the history of glass making and its use in houses. He had illustrations on slides and brought along a fine collection of artifacts for us to see and handle. Another excellent episode.

We finished the evening by talking about and sampling the ware’s of Bomber, the only brewer in the main part of Grandview. A fine end to a fine evening!

As many of you will know, we meet on the third Thursday of each month, at 7:00pm in the Britannia Board Room in the Info Centre (Commercial & Napier) and the next meeting is rapidly approaching — this Thursday.

The highlight of the evening will be Eric Philip’s illustrated talk on Glass in his remarkable Heritage Mechanicals and Materials series. Those who were there won’t soon forget last month’s teaser! Come along and see the real thing.

We will also discuss this year’s experience working with a university student, and compare it to the previous year’s experience, in order to answer the question: Should we keep doing this?

Other topics will include Heritage Vancouver’s Top 10 Endangered listing for Commercial Drive, a replacement for the Shelly plaque, and the schedule for the 2014 Centenary Celebration house signs project. And, of course, any other relevant topic that springs to mind..

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We are a few local historians and other interested people in the Grandview community of Vancouver working to identify, preserve, and celebrate the built, natural, and cultural heritage of Grandview and Commercial Drive. We meet on the third Thursday of the month at Britannia Community Centre. Please contact us at grandviewheritage@gmail.com for more information.